High School Suspends 2 Students for Posting Gun Range Photos on Snapchat, ACLU Files Suit

"Sharing our completely legal weekend activities on Snapchat should not result three days of in-school suspensions," Cody Conroy told Reason.

Two male students at Lacey Township High School in New Jersey posted photos of guns on Snapchat. One of the boys captioned his photo with "hot stuff" and "if there's ever a zombie apocalypse, you know where to go."

The photos were not taken at school. They were not taken during school hours. They did not reference a school. They auto-deleted after 24 hours, which was well before the school became aware of them. And yet, administrators at Lacey Township High School suspended the boys for three days, and also gave them weekend detention.

This was a clear violation of the students' First Amendment rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union has now filed suit.

"Young people have the right to express themselves, and, with rare exceptions, they shouldn't face punishment by school administrators for it," said C.J. Griiffin, a partner at the law firm Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, who is representing the students along with the ACLU.

The two students had visited a gun range owned by an older brother on Saturday, March 10, 2018. They practiced shooting with "legally purchased and properly permitted" guns, according to the lawsuit. They also took a few photos and posted them on Snapchat. None of the snaps were threatening, and none of them referenced a school.

Nevertheless, a parent of another student heard about the photos and contacted school authorities. On Monday, the boys were forced to meet with an assistant principal and an anti-bullying specialist, who quickly decided to punish them for clearly constitutionally-protected speech.

"Sharing our completely legal weekend activities on Snapchat should not result in three days of in-school suspensions," Cody Conroy, one of the two students, told Reason in an interview. (The other student was a minor at the time and is not named in the lawsuit.)

The Supreme Court has held that public schools may not arbitrarily infringe on student's free speech rights unless the speech in question is substantively disruptive to classroom proceedings. That clearly was not the case here.

Conroy, who is now a freshman at Rutgers University, hopes the lawsuit will deter his former school district from trampling students' rights in the future.

"My school seemed to not know what it was doing," he says.

Teenagers should not lose their First Amendment rights when they set foot in school, and they certainly shouldn't be punished for exercising those rights off campus. Kudos to the ACLU—which has been a little skittish about defending speech that relates to guns in the wake of Charlottesville—for taking this case.

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Wyoming is statistically pretty good, high median income, low poverty rate, etc…sure the suicide rate is a little high, but considering most of its population is in the eastern half of the state it is remarkably low.

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Wyoming is a leech at the federal teat, and when it develops a strong college or university that will be its first. Not that there’s much demand for undergraduate, let alone graduate, degrees among Wyoming residents.

Not really. Wyoming is 48% owned by the federal government, so it’s got a relatively high percentage of federal workers, and like all states in shares in the royalties for gas oil and mining on federal lands.

But let’s make a grand bargain, the Feds will give back Wyoming all its land, then the Feds can fire all the federal employees lording it over Wyoming, and it won’t have to pay extraction royalties anymore either.

Almost all of the states people are moving out of are left-leaning, while almost of the ones people are moving into are right-leaning. Of the states you revile specifically, they’re all either attracting people or are stable over the time period of the study (2011-2018), with the exception of West Virginia in one single year.

This data covers a slightly-older period (2009-2013) but shows the same thing even more starkly because it shows the major state-to-state net flows. Ever single one of the states you derided has a net inflow. In fact, New Jersey to South Carolina is one of the ones big enough to register in the top 50 paths, at 4140 net from NJ to SC over the period. Click on NJ to show all the in/out flows between there and the there 49 state, and every single one had more people moving there from NJ than vice-versa. Every. Single. One.

Now, I know leftists like you have never been big on revealed preference, but the people who count — the ones actually choosing where to live based on whatever criteria they find important — overwhelmingly disagree with you.

Clarification: by “Every. Single. One.” I meant the states Kirkland spoke of negatively, not all 49 other states. There is one state people are, on net, moving to New Jersey from: New York. I expect that tells us more about how much people Do Not Heart NY than anything positive about the NJ.

Does it hurt being that ignorant RAK? Or just normal for a Progressive serf?

BTW: Even NY Gov has been whining about losing a lot of rich, educated, people moving out of his State because of their vaunted Progressive taxes. I would also note that it is States like NY, NJ, etc. that have been sucking on the federal government teat for decades, getting the majority of their State taxes paid by the feds!

Yeah, no. I work in the software industry, where widely-spread remote teams are common, and most of the team members I’ve dealt with are in red (TX, TN) or sometimes purple (NV, CO) states. There was exactly one programmer in a blue state (CA). I know one individual, highly experienced and still in top earning years, who moved from the SF Bay to a spot in Nevada that hasn’t voted Democrat since 1936. For the most part, the only people in the SF office prior to it being moved to Texas were the non-technical positions, basically sales. And I get unsolicited job offers from tech companies in red states all the time, the most recent one from a place on your list of horribles: Utah.

Oh, and as to human residue, the company had a yearly get-together in SF back when it was still located there. At one point, we took a walk from the nicely-appointed office in the financial district to a good restaurant near the warf, and on the way, through the park, there was a bum — err, sorry, homeless person — taking a dump on the grass. That for me will always encapsulate San Francisco: high tech, fine dining, public human defecation.

Umm.. There are a lot of programmers living in California and there will continue to be. Big U.S. high-tech is not dismantling their large campuses in Silicon Valley and they continue to hire heavily there. However, most of the programmers I work with are in India thanks to widely spread remote teams and the globalist outlook of large tech companies.

Not denying that there are lots of programmers in California, but their share is dropping and will continue to drop. Further, the programmers working at those campuses skew towards those nearer the start of their careers. The more-experienced the programmer, the greater their likelihood being trusted to do so.

For humongous companies for whom having a big campus is prestige, yes, they will continue to do that, but for the small and medium-sized companies that make up the bulk due to their greater numbers, there is less and less a need to pay the expense of a physical office. All of the infrastructure that used to require huge amounts of time and money is available online. Heck, just for a personal tinkering project of mine, I’ve set up things via a major company’s services (don’t want to name names and sound like an ad) that one of my old employers paid thousands a month for, for about what an average programmer spends daily on coffee. The only reasons left to have a huge office are: you’re creating physical product, you need a nice place to impress clients spending lots of money, you need a nice place to impress employees who just spent lots of money on their degrees, or your management is too hide-bound to allow remote work.

The American south has been a thoroughgoing stain and drain on our nation — morally, economically, educationally, politically, culturally — for centuries, but New Jersey is the worst . . . from the perspective of disaffected, downscale right-wingers.

I have enjoyed watching my side win the culture war in America throughout my lifetime. Getting stomped by your betters, and being forced to comply obsequiously with their preferences, has made you cranky, Red Rocks.

Your obedience is appreciated. Whine, mutter, and rant as much as you wish, so long as you toe that line, clinger.

I’m gathering that you don’t realize you haven’t won yet. Your side has set up a few impossible tasks to seal the deal. Only When the seas rise 5 feet in a year, when a man ejaculates in another man’s anal cavity and produces a baby and MS-13 helps an old Jewish lady across the street and goes to mass…then you will have won the culture war. Until then, we’re just placating all of you.

But New Jersey is the worst. Considering things like educational attainment, literacy, diversified economy, etc… you would expect New Jersey to be at least a little advanced. Yet it remains a wretched pit of villainy and depravity.

Mississippi was founded as a plantation society utterly dependent on extractive slave agriculture financed by world commodity markets. South Carolina was a brutal military colony that’s economy was originally based on slave raiding into Florida. New Jersey was founded by Quakers and Dutch people.

The major drain and shit stain on our nation has been Progressive controlled cities (Plantations) and States with their Elitist Masters, Uncle Tom Overseers, and Proletariat Serfs like RAK (a wannabe Uncle Tom Overseer)!

A lot of schools have shitbag vice principals like this. Thirty years ago my high school had this progtard Native American vice principal that hated white kids. He especially had it in for one of my friends. One time he called the guy’s father to the school because he claimed that my friend had thrown a kegger the previous Friday night. The VP said he had proof and wanted to suspend my friend for this. Turned out the VP overplayed his hand, as my friend’s father informed the asshole that his son was home with him all night, where they were working on a project.

So these types of authoritarian leftist shitbags have been around for a very long time.

I do like when calves lick. Their tongues feel funny. It’s cute. I realise I’m setting myself up for a bestiality joke, but anyone who has spent time around cattle/hand fed baby cows knows what i mean.

I do like when calves lick. Their tongues feel funny. It’s cute. I realise I’m setting myself up for a bestiality joke, but anyone who has spent time around cattle/hand fed baby cows knows what i mean.

For several generations, our family has had a humorously discomforting physical prank (along the lines of purple nurples, indian burns, and charlie horses) called “cow bites”. Basically, the firm grip that dairy farmers are renowned for applied, using the fingertips, to other meatier parts of the body, like the quads, calves, or triceps. It induces a bit of a reflex effect (muscle tightens and joint stiffens/locks) and it feels similar to the ‘bite’ of a cow (which doesn’t have upper incisors).

A perfectly logical retort to the question of “Should I lie about not committing a crime?”

You *could* show up on a football field with a baseball bat. However, unless you’re the baddest mofo on the field, sidelines, and maybe even the first couple rows, the only best outcome is that you lose the football game.

Now, back to the topic at hand, when are you going to stop beating your wife?

If you have to talk to the Man, never lie. Don’t volunteer anything, maybe refuse to answer, but never say something that’s provably untrue. This just hands them another club to beat you with, even if the original charge turns out to be bogus.

And don’t think that auto-delete is any kind of protection. All someone has to do is grab a screen cap to prove that it was posted. Once you’ve posted something to the ‘net, just assume it’s going to be there forever, one way or another.

I wouldn’t have deleted them. I would have posted more and dared them to expel me. If they were stupid enough to take the bait, I would them file the mother of all lawsuits. Then I would organize every one of my gun toting ‘clinger’ friends and their families and had every one ofmthe, saturate their social media with lictures and video of them with their firearms at the range, while hunting, etc.. Everything nice and legal.

I would break these people. ThAT is how one deals with progtards. No requests, no pleading, no negotiation. Just crush them. Because EVERY progtard is nothing more than a dirty hippie at their core. And dirty hippies are to be back handed and slapped down. It’s the only way they learn their place.

Now, that is some naive shit right there. The school knew exactly what it was doing and obviously did not bother to do a minimum of research or just employed the ole’ FYTW because their good intentions outweigh any of his rights.

Must not have been enough white kids getting disciplined or the school felt the need to build up its street cred with the feds on how tough they are on guns and the like.

The part I find most disturbing about this and stories like it is that the schools seem to be claiming power to punish students for anything they do, anywhere at any time. Of course this is particularly stupid because it’s almost certainly about punishing them for having the wrong hobbies and they were doing nothing remotely illegal or threatening.

The part I find most disturbing about this and stories like it is that the schools seem to be claiming power to punish students for anything they do, anywhere at any time.

I’m kinda surprised that police unions aren’t appalled by the gall of these guys. You’d think they’d be all over “If you think a crime has been committed, please contact your local police department.” so that police could get their officiousness on.

It seems like somebody, at some point soon, is going to report something borderline illegal in borderline real time to a school official and they’ll be on the hook for not getting the police involved straight away.

I always wonder it got as far Federal court. I get the principal is an A-Hole who probably got pissed when mom and dad probably reacted like anyone around here would. But, why the hell didn’t the board just put a stop this?

I have to assume their lawyer pointed our point out this is a losing 1st amendment case, has 2nd amendment overtones, with reasonable settlement demands (remove from the kid’s record, update the policies, legal fees). Which asshole decided it was worth spending real money defending this?

Anyone who pays school taxes for Lacey Township High School should be warming up the woodchippers.

2. If you think school boards all over the country aren’t staffed by people who used to be school principals, worked for school principals and wanted more control over the system, or wanted to be in charge of things a principal would be in charge of without having to be a principal, you’re mistaken.

3. Even if you don’t get someone from #2 on the board, the odds you get someone who’s otherwise competent is low.

Not to say that there aren’t any competent school boards or school board members out there as much as the fact that it’s exceedingly likely that the vast majority of them who would read this post would be convinced I was making an exception for them.

Anyone who pays school taxes for Lacey Township High School should be warming up the woodchippers.

You have put your finger on the problem. Federal law allows a private suit for violation of one’s civil rights. You can obtain damages, and sometimes an injunction. Problem is, in most cases, there is no need for an injunction, as the violation was one time and stopped.

As for damages, in most cases, they end up being paid by the employer — in this case the school board — and ultimately the taxpayers.

So there is no disincentive for someone like the principal here to violate someone’s civil rights. At worst, there will be a lawsuit, where the school board will pay for his lawyer, and pay any damages.

IMO, federal law should be amended to disallow this compensation. Let the principal lose his house for acting like a jerk. Maybe the next principal will think twice.

administrators at Lacey Township High School suspended the boys for three days, and also gave them weekend detention. This was a clear violation of the students’ First Amendment rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union has now filed suit.

For justice to start to be served, the administrators will be suspended without pay for three months, during which time they will spend weekends in jail. That would be getting off lightly for a Federal Civil Rights crime.

Reminds me of what I’m currently arguing against my kid’s school. They are saying he will walk through metal detectors if they decide to do searches or he will be punished. I’m telling them to go fuck themselves out get a warrant.

First amendment? We don’t need to go so far. This was clearly a violation of the most basic rule of law. The law must be written and knowable. This “bullying” rule is so vague that it can include essentially anything, making it 100% arbitrary and capricious.

I live within walking distance of this place:This month-old spot in a relatively new mini-mall development called South Paterson Plaza is a three-in-one shopping experience: It’s a Turkish deli, butcher shop and restaurant. Just about any Turkish dish can be had here from Turkish menemen to lavrek (grilled sea bass) to minced lamb kebab to … chicken chops (in lieu of pork chops, pork being forbidden in Islam). But if you want something special, gather a group of friends — famished friends — and order a family platter.

There is no legal defense to this. There is not a court in the world that is going to say that the school can govern legal activities after school hours, and having nothing to do with the school itself. This is anti-gun hysteria mixed with profound arrogance. This is why public schools are a mess.

Yeah, came here to say this. If parents would like to know why public schools are authoritarian shitholes with ridiculous zero-tolerance policies, they can look right in the mirror. Expecting the schools to take over every tiny act that should be the responsibility of families, expecting schools to be not merely educational, but entertaining and perpetually comforting; expecting schools to eliminate even the most benign of risks, the weakest of challenges to their own worldview; suing schools for trivial noninjuries or situations that were actually their own fault. Congrats, tattle-tale parents, you’ve got the monster you created.

I personally have long viewed the actions or antics of the ACLU with a significant amount of question regarding what to my view, has been and seemingly remains their strange selectivity, that is issues that they rush to defend, while others are allowed to “die on the vine” so to speak.

As for the school officials, were I one of the students, I would have simply and plainly advised them of exactly what they might do with their disciplinary measures, including where they might shove them. From where I sit, these tin pot dictators, and the school district need to be taught a lesson such as will never be forgotten. Additionally, these two, penny dictators should be fired, and never again be allowed to have anything to do with education, as their actions clearly show they have little understanding of. Where in hell to thee clods get off, and how/where one wonders, did they grow the grandeloquent ideas they operate under.

On the ACLU’s selectivity: there’s no denying that there’s some left-leaning bias. (Best to cover all bases by donating to IJ and FIRE too).

But I believe the ACLU prefers to invest in “clean” cases where the facts aren’t in dispute and there aren’t complications that could divert the case away from the constitutional point they’re trying to make. There’s also a danger of getting to a high court and getting a *bad* precedent, i.e. nationwide creation of yet another “exception” to our rights.

I’m guessing they took this one because the kids and their parents did everything right, and the school is straight up claiming they have this authority rather than alleging some different set of facts.

The first day my principle assigned me to run the detention at the high school in Brooklyn, I asked the kids what they were in for and explained to them how my parents had helped pressure a school board to provide better education to African-American kids during their own activism days. The principle then found someone else to run the detention.

Labor Day and May Day became holidays because of worker strikes, if I recall correctly. Maybe it’s time for an annual national walkout day at schools.

Monday was the first team practice for our school’s varsity and JayVee skeet and trap teams. Not sure if anyone took pictures. Nor if they did, if they posted to social media. The team’s pictures were prominent in last year’s yearbook however (with guns). Not sure if that counts.

Oh, team numbers were limited to 15/team, despite many more trying out, dut to number of coaches. Those not picked formed a mixed intramural team when a coach/dad stepped up. Ergo, move the hell out of New Jersey.

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The problem is obvious. “On Monday, the boys were forced to meet with an assistant principal and an anti-bullying specialist”. A what? An anti-bullying specialist? There is no such thing, that is a bogus title probably awarded to some idiot with a psychology degree who thinks they know better than anyone else, and who of course hates guns and thinks they are the root of all evil. No wonder the process went off the rails. The assistant principal was probably supposed to keep the other in check, but failed, and implemented a completely unjustified set of punishments to a pair of students who did nothing wrong. Now the school and district will be facing lawsuits for the next year, rightfully so, and squandering taxpayer dollars to defend a stupid decision.

What did the school have to say about it? There was nothing in the article about the school’s side. Not that I expect them to have any good reason for what they did, but a fair article should include what they had to say, even it’s ‘no comment’.

The idea that a student can be punished for actions off campus, unrelated to any school activity and outside of school hours is insane. These boys were suspended because the school administration and some parent have an objection to guns, period. It is time for schools to stop thinking they are the thought police and have the right to police every aspect of a student’s life. They are not parents, they are educators.

The idea that a student can be punished for actions off campus, unrelated to any school activity and outside of school hours is insane. These boys were suspended because the school administration and some parent have an objection to guns, period. It is time for schools to stop thinking they are the thought police and have the right to police every aspect of a student’s life. They are not parents, they are educators.

I think the central aspect of this case is that the school is public and is therefore operated by the government. When government is involved, the freedom of speech is indeed an issue, but realistically, schools are going to have to make some restrictions on what their students are allowed to say. This demonstrates perfectly why the entire concept of public school is threatening to civil liberties. All schools should be private and should be allowed to make whatever kind of rules about speech that they want.

I’m nervous though about the ACLU. since when have they ever been on the right side of a court case. The ACLU has a frustrating tendency to ruin legitimate arguments with their overtly liberalism talking points which demand more government solutions instead of fewer.

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Only politically correct conversation is allowed in our re-education camps. The student knows this and deserves whatever punishment applicable to his anti-State crime. Hopefully this fascist and bitter clinger student will be publicly flogged for having the temerity for posting these hideous and vulgar gun range photos which might encourage others to own and learn how to use guns properly.

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